The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Review
by Joshua Ho on October 15, 2014 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Samsung
- Android
- Mobile
- Galaxy Note 4
WiFi Performance
While the Galaxy S5 LTE-A Broadband had a Qualcomm Atheros solution (QCA6174), the Note 4 moves back to Broadcom's WiFi solution. In this case, we see the BCM4358, which is a revision of the BCM4354 that was first seen with Samsung's Galaxy S5. This shouldn't have any major differences outside of improved Bluetooth coexistence but antenna design can and does change between revisions. In order to test this, we use iperf and Asus' RT-AC68U router to try and achieve maximum performance.
As one can see, the Galaxy Note 4 has a strong showing in this test, easily surpassing every other device we have available for testing.
GNSS
At this point, it really goes without saying that the GNSS solution of choice is the one built into Qualcomm's modem. This allows for fixes based upon initial location and time data that the modem has, and therefore in practice every GPS fix is a hot fix and takes around 5 seconds for a lock in good conditions. In the case of the Note 4, with airplane mode on and no assistance data I saw that it took around 50 seconds to achieve a lock, but this is strongly dependent upon environmental conditions. Once locked, I found that the Note 4 had quite a strong lock and quickly went down to 10 foot accuracy level without issue.
Misc
Similar to the new Moto X we see a Cypress CapSense solution in the Note 4 but this is likely used for the capacitive buttons rather than any impedance-matching antenna tuner. The UV sensor appears to be a Maxim design win, although there's no information on the specific part. The battery's fuel gauge is also a Maxim part, as is the speaker amplifier and pulse sensor. The NFC chip used is NXP's PN547, so host card emulation should be supported and therefore Google Wallet's tap and pay system should work as well.
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reininop - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
I agree on some points. When he describes in one sentence how the UI is "surprisingly functional", it implies some degree of expectation that the UI was broken before he even reviewed it. In the next sentence, he then describes the much more functional Iphone 6 software stack.I have not used either so the statement maybe be completely factual, but I have to take it with a grain of salt when there is obvious bias in the previous statement.
grayson_carr - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
Doesn't he say the Note 4 software is more functional, but the iPhone 6 Plus software is more polished? I would have to agree with that having used both phones.theduckofdeath - Thursday, October 16, 2014 - link
All other sites are complaining about the lack of polish for the iPhone 6 plus, that nothing is optimised for the large display. In contrast, everything is optimised for the large display on the Note 4. So, yeah, I agree with the OP. Anandtech has been suffering from acute RDF for several years.tralalalalalala40 - Saturday, October 18, 2014 - link
10 thousand+ apps have already updated on iOS to support large display in iP6. Apps will catch up much faster than expected.melgross - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
Um, about the same.tralalalalalala40 - Saturday, October 18, 2014 - link
zug zug the battery is better because it has more Li ions zug zugreality: battery life depends of efficiency of calculations
clumsyalex - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
Hey these photos/videos were taken at UCLA!kmmatney - Thursday, October 16, 2014 - link
Yep! I spent many years there getting my BS and MS in Materials Science (1988 - 1994). The building on the right didn't exist when I was there. I think that's Sproul Hall in the distance.kokono - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
Why Apple is still faster??It has only a double core cpu and no RAM..
melgross - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
Different philosophy. Instead of using four weak cores, they use two strong ones. Comlanies using eight cores generally are using four BIG, and four LITTLE. All of those cores are weaker yet. There's just so much you can do with similarly sized chips.